1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the preparation of lumps of dough or like pasty material, and has specific reference to an apparatus for this specific application, notably for preparing various foods or in the bakery or pastry industry.
2. Description of the Invention
Many apparatus have already been proposed for preparing dough lumps. However, these known apparatus consist as a rule of relatively bulky dough mixing machines designed for use in bakeries, notably industrial bakeries. In contrast thereto, the scope of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of relatively reduced overall dimensions and very simple design, intended more particularly for preparing a lump of dough or like pasty material in the form of a flat sheet or disk of substantially circular shape, adapted for use for example for making pizzas or pies, or other food or pastry specialties, both commercially and for home use.
For this purpose, the apparatus according to this invention comprises two trains of parallel or substantially parallel rolling rollers and a pivoting transfer tray disposed between said trains and adapted to receive the lump of dough released by the rollers of the first train and transfer said lump to the rollers of the other train after pivoting said tray about its pivot pin for changing the lump orientation for example by 90.degree..
Thus, the lump to be shaped is elongated twice in two directions perpendicular to each other. Therefore, when the lump emerges from the second train of rollers and from the apparatus itself it has a circular or nearly circular configuration and can be used without any subsequent handling for making a wide range of culinary or pastry specialties, such as pizzas or pies.
According to an advantageous form of embodiment of the apparatus of this invention, the pivoting transfer tray is arranged, and its pivot pin is disposed, in such a manner that the pivotal movement of said tray from its lump-receiving position to its lump transfer position is caused simply by the weight of this lump.
However, a return member such as a spring or a counterweight is provided for constantly urging the pivoting tray to a position in which it can properly receive the lump emerging from the rollers of the first rolling train.